Political Quotes

“great credit goes to our distinguished colleague from South Carolina for his chairmanship and leadership to get this piece of legislation through, as well as our distinguished ranking member, Senator McCain, and Senator Hutchison, who have worked hard to get this done. I want to make two points. Virginia was struck in this tragic episode on what is referred to as 9-11, September 11. As a consequence, National Airport was closed down and still is operating at less than half capacity. The economic consequences to our area in Northern Virginia has been very substantial. Senator Allen and I, together with other members of the Virginia delegation, are working to do our very best to provide funding for the people who have suffered as a consequence of closing the airports down. I have followed this debate and I, again, congratulate our chairman for the manner in which he and others conducted that debate on the floor of the Senate, and for the strong vote they had for their bill, and for the fact that much of the Senate bill has survived this important conference. But in the course of this debate, I think mainly in the other body, there were inferences raised that Government employees were perhaps not first-class citizens but second-class citizens. I resented that. I am privileged to represent many of them, and I myself have had about eight or nine different Government positions in my lifetime.”